Nature lead ESDP
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In the newly designed utopia "Nature lead ESDP (European Spatial Development Perspective)" the currently existentially endangered resource water becomes the spatially defining element of the European continent, the river basins are highlighted as new territorial planning units for protection against floods and improvement of water quality.
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Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
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Description of the project
Summary
The ecological quality of the entire ecosystem is in danger, especially that of freshwater ecosystems. At the same time, the danger posed by the element of water is increasing. Rising sea levels and increased risk of flood events exemplify two serious problems that require a cross-regional and long-term European adaptation strategy.
In the future, the goal of European spatial development should be to use the program content of the INTERREG initiative as a new overriding "spatial development philosophy" for a reinterpretation and updating of the ESDP (European Spatial Development Perspective). The new "spatial development philosophy" consists of promoting cross-administrative and cross-border cooperation and coordinated spatial planning in functionally and ecologically connected areas, as is already required in the "New Leipzig Charter".
With the examination of three different European utopias: the political utopia of the "European Republic" by the political scientist Ulrike Guérot, the artistic utopia "Peninsula Europe", conceived by the artist couple Harrison, and the reality construct "Nowa Amerika", designed by the artist Michael Kurzwelly, an own utopia was designed.
In the newly designed utopia "Nature lead ESDP (European Spatial Development Perspective)" the currently existentially endangered resource water becomes the spatially defining element of the European continent, the river basins are highlighted as new territorial planning units for protection against floods and improvement of water quality.
Key objectives for sustainability
The new territorial units of the European Union would now result from the geophysical territorial characteristics, namely those of the river basins. The currently existentially endangered resource water would become a space-defining element of the European continent. It would now be possible to introduce new "basic ecological principles" of spatial development, which serve to protect against flooding and improve water quality in the sense of nature-based resilience. If one now brings the approach of the reality construction "Nowa America" into the considerations, in which a new cultural identity is created with its own constitution and its own parliament, an institutionalization and legitimacy of the new territorial units is quite conceivable.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The Art Nouveau movement from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century created a utopia that was reflected in its artistic implementation. The recollection to nature and its unique natural forms resulted from criticism directed against the growth of mass production. Both the criticism of economic ways of thinking can be found in this work, as well as the rediscovery or the return to nature and its natural spatial conditions.
Key objectives for inclusion
Resilience can only be created to the extent that institutional structures allow it. With the proclamation of the "European Republic", Ulrike Guérot creates a new socio-political framework, so that a rediscovery of the European area would be possible (cf. Guérot 2018: 84ff.). The administrative and national borders, which disrupt coherent planning in the European area, would be dissolved. Building on this, the utopia "Peninsula Europe" by the artist couple Harrison describes a new territorial spatial order that involves the creation of a nature-based would make resilience possible.
Packed into a conceptual "pot" the enumerated utopias form a kind of chronology which, when put together, results in a triad of politics (European Republic), space (Peninsula Europe) and practiced real laboratory (Nowa America). The basic critical societal tenor underlies everything: the construction of reality in the form of the nation state produces no recognizable benefit or advantage for people's coexistence. On the contrary, he excludes and limits the possibilities of what is feasible. Climate change with its consequences, loss of biodiversity, extreme weather events in the form of floods, periods of drought, deterioration in water quality, knows no bounds.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Please see graphic and point before.
